Brotherhood
by Scribbler
Summary: Esper Roba never had much influence to begin with, but he had even less after his parents died. Though they protested, he and his brothers were split up, but Esper was determined to reunite his family. A story about the Roba Brothers pre-Battle City.


**Disclaimer****: **Incontestably not mine.

**A/N****:** Yet another one from _As Deep as the Sky_ that went beyond the time limit. The idea of that ficlet collection is you put your music play-list on random and have to write a fanfic based on whatever song pops up, but you only have the duration of that song in which to write it. Since I didn't follow the rules and spent far longer than just three minutes on this one, I decided to upload it separately.

* * *

_**Brotherhood**_

© Scribbler, September 2008.

* * *

_Raise your head up  
Lift high the load  
Take strength from those that need you  
Build high the walls  
Build strong the beams  
A new life is waiting  
But danger's no stranger here_

No words describe a mothers tears;  
No words can heal a broken heart.  
A dream is gone, but where there's hope…

Somewhere something is calling for you.  
Two worlds, one family.  
Trust your heart;  
Let fate decide  
To guide these lives we see

-- From **Two Worlds **by Phil Collins

* * *

Esper Roba never had much influence to begin with, but he had even less after his parents died. Though they protested, he and his brothers were split up. There were just too many of them to be kept together, said the authorities, justifying how they were all placed in different orphanages and care homes. Esper was put into one alone, where he learned from in-and-outers – kids who'd been in and out of foster homes so often they could practically fill in their own paperwork – that this was adult-code for 'babies get adopted quicker if adopters don't think they come with much baggage, but big kids rarely get adopted at all'.

Esper had always been a quiet boy, and continued to be one. Eventually those in charge of his orphanage pigeonholed him as introverted but responsible, quite mature for his age, and very trustworthy after he stopped a fight between two much bigger boys. He cultivated this image for weeks, until their eyes ghosted over him instead of lingering – _"We don't need to worry about __**that**__ one."_

As well as being a quiet boy, Esper was also a very canny one. He'd been watching how this place operated, and late one night he took his opportunity to steal the key to Matron's office while she inspected the girls' dormitory. He used her computer, getting past the security measures with ease because Matron didn't like technology and used her surname as a password for everything.

He found the information he wanted within five minutes. This left him with plenty of time to shut the terminal down, arrange her office so it looked like nobody had been there, squeeze out of the badly-fitting window in the boys' bathroom, and make his escape over the grounds. Getting over the wall was difficult, but there was a jumble of ivy, honeysuckle and variegated holly that provided cover as long as he didn't mind getting scratched. If it meant seeing his brothers again, Esper could deal with a few cuts.

One by one, he broke into the orphanages and foster homes where his brothers were being kept. He didn't force them to come with him, especially since the first two sets of foster parents in the mantle photographs seemed nice, but his brothers took one look at his eyes and came with him. He didn't ask the baby, though, because the baby had bruises that made him frown. Esper's protective instincts almost overwhelmed him getting his youngest brother away from _that_ house.

He was swift, giving the authorities no time to outthink him before it was too late, and his entire family was free.

"Were together again!" they cried, hugging him and whooping for joy.

Esper was happy too, but as the eldest, thoughts were occurring to him that made him frown like he had at the baby's bruises. Where we they going to sleep? What would they eat? How would they live now? He'd been so focussed on reuniting them that he hadn't planned that far ahead, and now doubt crept into his heart. Had he really done the right thing?

He made some money doing tarot readings, which he'd learned from their mother, a professional fortune-teller, but it wasn't enough. They slept rough. Esper barely slept at all. The baby got a terrible cough. He started frowning more and more, and his brothers got more and more worried. Maybe they should've stayed where they were – divided, sure, but safe and healthy. Those in the middle feared for the nerves of the eldest and the life of the youngest.

Then one of them won a backpack in a bet with a school kid. He brought it home, and inside there was enough food to give everyone a bite to eat, a cell phone from which they instantly removed the SIM-card and then pawned … and a pack of Duel Monsters cards.

Esper used to play a little before their parents died. He was canny, and the intricate strategies of Duel Monsters suited his personality. He liked having problems he had to think his way out of. His brothers presented him with the pack, to say thank you for all he'd done for them, and to tell him they loved him.

"For … me?" Esper whispered as Kei reverently closed his fingers around the cards. They fragmented into blurry images as he hugged and played each of them at a game, laughing and frowning a little less. "I love you," Esper whispered as Kei, Sasame and Mannen nuzzled close to him under the bridge that evening, smiling in their sleep.

There were some rare and semi-rare cards in the deck. Some nights, when he couldn't sleep for worrying, he brought out the rarest and spent hours murmuring his fears to it, as though Ginzo could actually hear him. Ginzo wasn't a pretty card, but it was tough. He took strength from it, modelling his behaviour so he could look after the brother who meant so much to him, and be worthy of both Ginzo and their respect.

Then the baby's cough worsened, and Esper grew desperate enough to wonder how much he could get for his precious cards – enough for a blanket and some medicine? Enough for a trip to a real doctor? Would a doctor tell on them? Would they be split up again?

Would that necessarily be a bad thing?

Being the adult when you were only a kid really, really sucked. He was on the verge of giving up his deck when the city around them erupted into whispers about a _tournament, _run by _Kaiba Corp._, with _huge cash prizes_ and _no registration fee_. Esper pricked up his ears, the cards held tight against his chest.

"Big Brother?"

He turned to look at who was tugging on his sleeve. It was Sasame, third youngest, the baby clasped in his arms. Behind him the rest of the Roba brothers clustered, looking to Esper for guidance.

He nodded, half to them and half to himself. "We need to get an application form. I think our worries might finally be over."

* * *

_**Fin.**_

* * *

**A/N****:** Points to anyone who knows where I got the names for some of the other Roba brothers.


End file.
